HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Chancellor Gordon Brown Launches a Better Deal for Working Parents [September 1999]

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 7 September 1999.

The biggest shake-up of the tax and benefits system since Beveridge began today, as a major £12m advertising campaign was launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown to promote the Working Families’ Tax Credit (WFTC) – a better deal for working parents.

WFTC, which replaces Family Credit and comes into effect on 5 October, will help 1.5 million families, including 3 million children, by providing a decent, living wage along with generous help with childcare costs. The advertising campaign encourages people to ring a freephone response line – 0800 597 5976 – to see how they’ll benefit.

WFTC will ensure that, from now on, a life in work will mean more than a life on benefits.

Gordon Brown said:

“The launch of the Working Families Tax Credit means the Government is not only integrating tax and benefits for the first time to tackle the causes of poverty but fulfilling an essential commitment of welfare reform – to make work pay. Our aim is that work will pay more that benefits. Working families will no longer need to apply to the social security office to take home a living income. And everyone benefits. The more people in work the less is paid out in social security, the better are the tax revenues and our ability to finance public services.

“On average the 1.5 million families receiving WFTC will get £24 a week more than they would have received under the old system. Around 3 million children will benefit.

“Our aim is to abolish family poverty for every family on WFTC, and ensure that every child has the best start in life.

“The WFTC marks a major landmark, not just in the reform of the tax system, linking tax and benefits but in welfare reform.”

The advertising campaign, which begins tomorrow, features a series of television and press adverts alerting people to eligibility for WFTC, providing information on how much they might be eligible for, and encouraging them to ring a freephone response line to get more information. The number is 0800 597 5976, and is open from 7am until 11pm.

The campaign, produced by St Lukes advertising agency, uses the concept of advocates – people we come into contact with everyday, such as lollypop ladies and ice cream sellers – to encourage information about WFTC to be passed on to the public.